Comfort Zone

Whew! Yesterday was interesting, educational, and at times, frustrating.

My son arrived early in the morning to set up my new computer and go over the basic steps needed to take my old brain from Vista to Windows 10 with as little panic as possible. I have been doing things the same way for many, many years and I think he was quite surprised when I told him it was time for me to get a new computer.

I bought my computer at a big box store and let their Geek Squad transfer the data from my old computer to the new one. Some of my programs were ancient and not compatible with Windows 10. However, my aging PhotoShop program made the switch and all of my essential research files. The basics of my daily work are all here and ready to go.

Thousands of “extra” photos were lost in the switch. They were attached to the PhotoShop program as a sort of holding file. You know how it is- you take ten photos of the same subject, choose the best one to share, and then hold on to the others in case you need them. I did that for years, even though I rarely went back and actually used a photo that I had first rejected. The worst were deleted, but others just sat there taking up space. So that file cleansing was needed. I have better plans going forward.

I have to give my son extra credit for patience yesterday. He was certainly operating out of his comfort zone. He works online from a home office and his internet service and computers are both FAR superior to ours. Waiting over an hour for this new Word program to load would have been unbearable had it not coincided with lunch. We took a break and returned to the office afterwards.

I was anxious about two things. Would my very old photo scanner still work? Would my newer, but recently cranky, copier work? I was prepared to buy a new copier/scanner and start over if necessary. But after a couple of false starts, my son managed to get both working and I’ve used them already this morning.

Now comes the expanding of my own comfort zone. And believe me, I was VERY comfortable with my old little world. My daily writing and photo editing and researching had become very routine. Only some recent “glitches” and messages made it clear that I needed to update.

I mentioned that my scanner still works. It does…but everything associated with the process is “different”. The screen that appears, the editing options, the saving process…each takes a few minutes of consideration and understanding. Same with the printer. PhotoShop even appears to have changed slightly. Word is different. Good for me. Good for my brain.

I think I needed to expand my comfort zone…at least here in the office.